Giants Playground Namibia - a geological
phenomena

The Giants Playground, is situated on the Farm Gariganus,
the same that is home to the Quiver Tree Forest. You must buy your
ticket at the farm office as the Giants Playground lays a couple of
kms to the east of the farm house/office. It's called the Giants
Playground because of the way in
which the massive dolerite boulders have apparently been placed one
on top of another by some gigantic force, creating strange rock formations and a
series of mazes. You'll have to keep your bearings when exploring this maze
site. You can easily find yourself a few hundred meters from where you
thought you should be. The rock formations make for a couple of hours of
interesting hiking, plus you'll get some good photographs. Take some water
and wear sensible clothing.

Giants Playground - The Formation:

About 180 million years ago during the
Early Jurassic Epoch the
tectonic plate movements within the great single land mass known a
Pangaea were
beginning to cause the super
continent to separate and divide into the continents of
Laurasia to
the North and
Gondwana to the South. The earth's surface, in
many places, was subjected to enormous upheavals. In the area around
Keetmanshoop molten magma pushed its way through long cracks in the
overlaying rock. Over tens of millions of years, the deep layers
of sedimentary rocks through which the dolerite had intruded were eroded away exposing the harder rock
that can, in many places, be seen as the dark backbone like formation
running along the top of a row of hills. These are called dolerite
dykes and are usually between 3 - 10 meters in width and can run from a few
hundred metres to more than 20 km in length.

into the maze

Giants Maze

The dolerite dykes and
surrounding area while at sub surface levels were subjected to 'spheroidal
weathering', caused by water flowing through the cracks and fissures
in the dykes. In later times when the rocks had been exposed they
further experienced millions of years of ongoing temperature
weathering that also caused the rocks to crack. Wind blown sand
erosion also helped to polish the surface of the rocks. There are so many different strange rock formations you won't be able to decide which ones to
photograph and which not to. It's all a bit weird. The above right assembly is about three stories high. Whilst on your tour
you'll see plenty of Rock Hyrax (Dassies) scuttling around